A Supreme Court bench on Tuesday reserved its order on the pleas by some MLAs in Karnataka against the Assembly speaker.
The Supreme Court was hearing pleas by 10 Karnataka MLAs of the Congress and JD(S) who resigned from the Assembly since July 1, plunging the state into a political crisis. Five more MLAs of the ruling coalition who resigned from the Assembly have also filed pleas. All 15 MLAs petitioned the Supreme Court on the grounds that Karnataka Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar had not acted on their resignation letters.
The Supreme Court will pronounce its order at 10.30am on Wednesday, a day before the H.D. Kumaraswamy government faces a vote of confidence.
The Supreme Court bench was led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and also comprised Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose. On July 12, the Supreme Court had ordered Kumar not to act on the resignations or initiate disqualification procedures till its orders on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard submissions from Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the rebel MLAs, and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the speaker. While Rohatgi claimed the speaker was delaying action against the MLAs in order to disqualify them, Singhvi sought time till Wednesday to decide on the resignation letters and disqualification proceedings.
Chief Justice Gogoi noted that both Singhvi's argument of resignation being used to “circumvent disqualification” and Rohatgi's claim of the 10th Schedule being invoked to defeat an MLA's “right to resign” were “weighty issues”. Gogoi said the court would need to balance these weighty issues.
Rajeev Dhawan made arguments on behalf of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy after the lunch break. Dhawan said the “other side” (in an apparent reference to the BJP) had promised to make the rebel MLAs ministers.
Dhawan also argued the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction over the speaker's decision-making process. Dhawan was quoted by Live Law as saying, “this Court can interfere only after the decision is made and not before that”.
